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U.S. Manufacturing Base Far From Dead

The US Manucturing Base is far from dead. Looking at some historical numbers we see:

Country

1990

1995

2000

2005

2006

2007

2008

USA

1,041

1,289

1,543

1,624

1,712

1,756

1,831

China

145

300

484

734*

891*

1,106*

1,399**

Japan

810

1,219

1,034

979

927

923

1,045

Germany

438

517

392

571

608

711

767

Italy

240

226

206

295

302

345

381

United Kingdom

206

218

226

264

295

323

323

France

200

233

190

255

255

287

306

Russian Federation

120

64

45

124

157

206

256

Brazil

120

125

96

137

163

201

237

Korea

66

131

136

211

234

260

231

Spain

112

104

98

160

170

196

222

Mexico

62

67

133

154

175

182

197

Canada

92

100

129

168

182

197

195

India

51

61

69

122

141

177

188

Hat tip for this chart from Curious Cat Investment and Economics Blog at curiouscat.com where you can seek further detail on numbers. Chart Based on the latest UN Data, for global manufacturing, in billions of current US dollars.

This chart gives an overview on the scale of US manufacturing compared to other of the worlds industrialized economies. The sheer magnitude of U.S. manufacturing prowess is good to keep in mind when we start whining about how the US industrial base has disappeared offshore; is shrinking so fast that we will soon be overtaken by China, Brazil and India; or that unions are destroying same.

If you were to look at the 2008 manufacturing numbers per capita an even starker picture of how much each individual American produces emerges. From the World Fact Book 2008 we see:

USA Population estimate 2008: 301,139,967

China population estimate 2008: 1,321,851,888

Brazil population estimate 2008: 190,010,647

India population estimate 2008: 1,129,866,154

Lets round the population number to the nearest million and then look at manufacturing per capita, if I did my math correctly……we see:

USA per capita manufacturing dollar value: $6,083

China per capita manufacturing dollar value: $1,058

Brazil per capita manufacturing dollar value: $989

India per capita manufacturing dollar value: $210

The United States Manufacturing base is the largest in the world by any measure and American workers are the still the most productive in the world, and should remain so for a long time to come! Let’s us keep these numbers in mind, and in proper perspective, when we whine about losing all those jobs to offshore manufacturing or unions, which in 2006 were only 11.6% of the manufacturing workforce, destroying our manufacturing base, or that ANY other country will overtake the US in manufacturing per capita anytime soon.